Agents find $1.5M in pot hidden in truck

U.S. Border Patrol agents found 47 bundles of marijuana hidden in a truck's false wall Sunday night. The marijuana bricks weighed 1,016 pounds and had an estimated street value of $1,524,000, according to the border patrol.
— Photo courtesy U.S. Border Patrol

U.S. Border Patrol agents found 47 bundles of marijuana hidden in a truck's false wall Sunday night. The marijuana bricks weighed 1,016 pounds and had an estimated street value of $1,524,000, according to the border patrol.
/ Photo courtesy U.S. Border Patrol

EAST COUNTY  U.S. Border Patrol agents at a Pine Valley checkpoint on Interstate 8 found more than $1.5 million worth of marijuana hidden behind a false wall in a big rig Sunday night.

The nervous demeanor of the truck driver, a 55-year-old El Salvadoran man, led agents to take a closer look at the tractor-trailer, which arrived at the checkpoint about 11 p.m., Border Patrol spokeswoman Mary Beth Caston said.

A drug-sniffing dog reacted to the trailer, and a search by agents turned up the false wall. Behind it: a little more than 1,000 pounds of pot with a street value of $1.5 million, Caston said.

The driver and drugs were turned over to a multi-agency drug task force, and the Border Patrol seized the tractor-trailer.